Int'l community cannot ignore Afghan crisies: UN official
Oct 15, 2021
Washington [US], October 15 : The international community cannot look away from the multiple crises unfolding in Afghanistan, said a UN official, adding that Hunger the plight of women and girls, the looming economic crisis and COVID-19 remain alarming and require urgent action.
"The international community cannot look away from the multiple crises unfolding in Afghanistan. Hunger, the plight of women and girls, the looming economic crisis and COVID-19 remain alarming and require urgent action," Amina J Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the UN said in a tweet.
The UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said on Tuesday that the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan is worsening, and funding for emergency aid is urgently needed to help 20 million people there.
This comes a month since the UN had led an appeal for solidarity for the people of Afghanistan, seeking USD 606 million for the troubled country. Only 35 per cent of the funds it needed to fund operations for the next two months had been received, the UN refugee agency said.
On Monday, UN chief Antonio Guterres had urged the international community to inject cash into Afghanistan's crumbling economy to prevent its collapse, for which "not only they but all the world will pay a heavy price".
UNHCR spokesperson Babar Baloch on Tuesday said that the agency was trying to establish a logistics hub just outside Afghanistan's border to distribute aid to the country's many hundreds of thousands of internally displaced, UN News reported.
Baloch stated that Afghanistan's economy was at "a breaking point", and that this collapse had to be avoided at all costs.
"So, resources are really needed to reach more and more Afghans, I mean, when you talk about half of the population relying on humanitarian assistance; 20 million, that number is rising day by day," he said, adding, "We need those resources as immediately as possible."
